They Told It Wrong
by Idiot Jed1
Summary: Happily ever after and all that jazz--Cordy tells fairy tales how they were meant to be.
1. Down the Rabbit Hole

They Told It Wrong

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Chapter One—Down the Rabbit Hole

            The five-year-old girl jumped onto her bed and pulled her sheets up to her neck.  She flopped around, getting comfortable.

            "Are Daddy and Mom having a good time on their daaaate, Aunt Cordy?"

            "I bet you they are," Cordelia said from where she was kneeling by the small bookcase.  "Any particular bedtime story, 'Lonna-Bear?"

            "Something to do with birfdays!"

            "BirTHday.  In honor of your mom's birthday, huh?"

            "Yep!"  The girl sat up and smiled winningly at her babysitter.  "How long until MY birthday, Aunt Cordy?"

            "Well," Cordelia smiled as she pulled a book from the shelf.  "Today could be your _Un_Birthday, if you want.  Just like Alice."

            Alonna giggled and lied back down.  As Cordy sat next to her, she glimpsed at a picture of the girl with her mother.

            "You know what?"

            "What?"

            "The author of _Alice in Wonderland _told the story wrong.  But I know what _really _happened.  Do you want to hear?"

            "Yeah!"

            Cordelia put the book on the bedside table and leaned forward, eyes twinkling.  

            "There once was a beautiful, brilliant girl named Alice.  She was alone in a library, trying to find the answer to a very tough problem.  All of a sudden, as she was reading aloud, something distracted her.  There was a loud _whooshing _noise, and then this black swirly hole appeared in front of Alice.  Now, because Alice was VERY smart, but not very strong, she couldn't fight the force of the hole, and she fell into it—"

            "Oh NO!  Was she all right?"

            "Yes, yes, she was.  But she was in a strange, scary world, and she had no idea how to get home.  There were weird animals there, and the people were all green."

            "Like Uncle Lorne?"

            "Yep, like Uncle Lorne.  But they weren't all as nice as Uncle Lorne, and one particularly nasty lady took Alice prisoner!"

            "The Queen of Hearts?"

            "Nope, she was just a regular lady.  This world didn't have a queen, but there was a prophecy—"

"What's a pro—pro--?"  
"Prah-fuh-see."

"Prophecy?"

"A prophecy tells the future.  And this one said that there would be a princess for that world someday, and she would be pretty and nice and wonderful.  But she wasn't there yet, and Alice was all alone and scared.  But she used her brain and escaped from the mean old lady who held her prisoner.  She ran into the forest and lived there for a while, until she wasn't sure if she even remembered the world where she really belonged.  But soon she met a prince.  He was from her world too, and he had been looking for his friend—a pretty, nice, wonderful girl who had also fallen into a swirly hole."

"The Princess!"

"Absolutely.  Alice and the Prince and the Prince's Knights joined teams, and they realized that there was a lot of other people just like Alice who were being held prisoner.  So they fought and they fought and they stormed the castle, where they found the Princess and helped her set all the people free."

           "And they all lived happily ever after?"  
           "Hold on.  They still had to find out how to get home.  Well, one of the Prince's Knights was smart—as smart as Alice herself.  He read all the books in the Castle's Library and found a way to make a swirly hole for them to go home.  They all got ready to go—even the Princess, because she didn't want to be away from her friends forever, and she knew that the people of that world would be okay now—and they went home.  But Alice didn't remember a lot about her world anymore, and she was still very afraid.  After some time, she saw her mom and daddy again, and she began to make friends with the other Knight, and they got married and lived happily ever after."

"I liked that story, Aunt Cordy."  
"I thought you would.  Go to bed now."

"Love you."

"Love you too, sweetie."

  
 


	2. The TURTLE Prince!

OK, I'm still getting new to this site, so sorry about any troubles.  Anyway, I forgot to put in a disclaimer (as if it isn't obvious)—the characters, etc. of Angel and Buffy do not belong to me.  They belong to Whedon, Greenwalt, and ME. On with the story…

_Chapter Two—The TURTLE Prince?_

            "Alonna, it's your turn?  What fairy tale are you going to tell the class?"

            Alonna Gunn stood up and faced her classmates.  "My story is 'The Turtle Prince."

            The other students laughed.  One of the boys in the back yelled out, "It's the FROG prince, silly!"

"That's what you think!  My Aunt Cordy says that way, way back when, they told it wrong.  The prince gets turned into a turtle!  She told me!"

"Okay, Alonna.  Let's hear what your aunt told you."

Alonna cleared her throat importantly.  "Once upon a time, there was a handsome and strong prince named Charles.  That's my Daddy's name too.  Prince Charles and his sister lived in a very small castle in a very small kingdom, but they were happy and they cared about their subjects very much.  So much that even the Princess would go out and fight the dragons and monsters that attacked their kingdom.  One time, a mean monster beat the Princess up and turned her into a monster too.  The Prince found his sister, but he knew that not even the greatest wizard in his kingdom could turn her back.  He locked her up so that she couldn't ever hurt anyone, but he was very sad, because he would never see his sister again.  He became so sad and so hurt that he never talked to anyone anymore and never let anyone care about him.  He did that for so long, that he grew a shell 'round himself and finally turned into a turtle!  All of his subjects were angry and sad that they had lost both their Princess and Prince, and began hurting all the monsters in the kingdom, even the nice ones that didn't want to hurt anyone."

"There aren't any _nice_ monsters, Alonna!"

"Quiet! There are, too.  The Turtle Prince left his kingdom and his subjects behind and he traveled far and wide, and it took him a long time.  He finally found another kingdom to live in that he liked very much.  The King there was very nice and so was the Queen.  She told the Turtle Prince that she liked him, and if he wanted, she would pretend to be his sister, so that he wouldn't be lonely again.  The Turtle Prince agreed, and little by little, he began to be nice and friendly to people again.  Then, one day he met a nice girl in the kingdom.  She kissed him, and he lost the shell completely and became wonderful Prince Charles again.  The End!"


	3. Let Down Your Hair

_Chapter Three—Let Down Your Hair_

              
            "Guess what, Aunt Cordy!"

            "What, honey?"

            "My kindergarten class is doing a play!  Rapunzel!"

            "Oh, dear.  You know they told that story wrong."

            "Ha ha!  I knew you were going to say that!  Now, you have to tell me."

            "But I already told you a bedtime story."

            "Oh, please, Aunt Cordy?"

            Cordelia sighed and looked down at the girl.

            "There once was a very, very old man.  He wanted to have a little baby more than anything in the whole wide world, but he and his wife knew they couldn't because they were too old.  One day, they found out that his wife was actually going to have a baby."

            "How?"

            "I don't know, honey.  Magic.  The lady loved her baby very much, but she was afraid she wouldn't be able to take good care of it, because she was so old.  But the old man told her everything would be okay, and he held her while she cried.  Well, when ladies get pregnant, they have weird cravings, and when OLD ladies get pregnant, they get really weird cravings.  The old lady was very hungry…she wanted to drink blood!"

            "Like a vampire?"

            "Yes, dear.  How do you know about vampires?"

            "Kevin, from my class, was one for Halloween."

            "Good, I was going to yell at your Daddy."

            "Why?"

            "Never you mind.  Anyway.  The old man took care of his wife, and tried to help her the best he could.  But right before the baby was born, he ran into an old enemy of his.  The old man had hurt this other guy's family a long time ago, and while he was very, very sorry about it now, there was nothing he could do to fix his mistake.  So the other man yelled at our first guy, and tried to hurt him back.  He put a curse on the old man and his whole family, because he was very sad about what had happened so very long ago.  The old lady finally gave birth to the baby boy—"  
            "Rapunzel was a girl!"

            "No, the baby was a boy."

            "What's his name?"

            "Um…Colin.  Unfortunately, the old lady died shortly after having the baby, and the old man had to take care of it by himself.  He loved Con—Colin very much, and did the best he could, with the help of his friends.  But the man's curse came back to haunt them.  The old man's very best friend saw a prophecy that the old man was going to hurt the baby—but that was a lie, put there by friends of the enemy.  The friend was very scared, and took the baby away from the old man, who became very upset and tried to find his child.  The enemy caught them first, though, and kidnapped the baby, leaving the old man's friend horribly injured.  He ran away with the baby and the old man didn't see his son again for a long, long time.  When he did, the boy was all grown up and he had long hair—but not long enough to climb up--and he was very sad and angry with the old man.  But the dad and baby got to know and love each other, and they all lived happily ever after.  The End."

            "What about the old man's friend?"

"Oh, yeah.  Well, he was very sad and alone for a while, because the old man was mad at him for taking away his baby without telling him, but they made up again.  Later, a lady he and the old man had known a long time ago came there and she and the friend fell in love, even though they used to fight a lot and she had hurt him very badly.  They were nice to each other now, and even had their own little baby girl."

"What about the enemy?"

            "He and the old man talked a little, and then he died, and finally was with his family again."

            "That's good.  He was just sad about his own little kids.  He wasn't that bad."

            "I agree.  But he shouldn't have taken the baby away."

            "No, that was mean.

            "Alright, kid.  You had two stories, and now it's time for bed."

            "Aunt Cordy?"

            "Yeah?"

            "How come you don't have any kids?  Is it because they wouldn't have a daddy?"

            "That's exactly why.  Besides, why do I need a kid when I have two wonderful nieces?"

            "Aunt Cordy?"

            "Ah!  Enough!  Go to bed!"  
  



	4. The Ugly Demon

_Chapter Four—The Ugly Demon_

            Alonna stretched upwards in her seat, trying to see out the window, and then looked at her mom in the front seat of the car.

            "Mom, will you tell me a story?"

            "Sure, Alonna.  What d'ya wanna hear?"

            "Um…the Ugly Demon!"

            Her dad turned to look at her, laughing.  "Think you mean the Ugly Duckling, dear."      

            His wife smiled at her husband, and motioned towards the road.  He returned to his driving.  

            "Nuh-uh.  Aunt Cordy told me the other day that that's wrong.  It's actually about a demon.  A GREEN demon!"

            "Like your Uncle Lorne?"

            "Yep!"

            "Well, why don't ya tell _me_ about the ugly demon?"

            "Okay!  There once was a young demon, but he was a nice demon.  He lived with his mommy and his brothers and sisters, but they were all mean.  They laughed at him, because he wasn't mean like the rest of them.  He liked to sing and dance and wear pretty clothes and go to the ocean because he liked the breeze."

            "I think you mean 'sea breeze,' honey."

            "Yeah, sea breeze.  Anyway, their teasing hurt his feelings, and so when he grew up, he decided to run away from home and find some people who liked the same things he did.  So, he went all over the world, looking for nicer people.  Finally, he came to a big city, and he started singing again.  He met some people there who sang with him.  He could tell that they were nice people who fought bad demons like his family, but liked him because he was good.  So, even though they were people and not green demons, he was adopted by them, and became part of their family.  They cared about him and helped him when he got into trouble, and they all sang and had good times together, and lived happily ever after.  The End."

            "That's a very pretty story, Alonna."

            "Do you think Uncle Lorne would like it?"  
            "Yes, he probably would."

            "I love Uncle Lorne.  I'm glad he's a good demon."


	5. Straight on till Morning

_Chapter Five—Straight On Till Morning_

            "I like this movie, Aunt Cordy."

            "I do, too, but you know…"

            "They told it wrong?"

            "Yes, they did.  The true story of Peter Pan starts long before he ever met Wendy."

            "How does it start?"

            Cordelia turned off the television and picked up her niece, setting her back down in her lap.  Alonna snuggled into her.

            "Well, many years ago, there was a little boy who didn't listen to his mommy and daddy.  When he found out all their dreams for him when he grew up, he ran away and met a witch, who cast a spell on him that he would never get old.  He ran off to Never-Never Land to play all the time.  But there was a bad person in Never-Never Land, an evil person."

            "Captain Hook?"

            "Sorta.  The funny thing was, he looked exactly like Peter Pan, and he would lie to all of Peter's friends, pretending to be him and trying to hurt them.  Peter, with the help of a very pretty warrior, banished the evil man, but they didn't kill him.  They knew that he might come back some day.  Plus, Peter wasn't ready to grow up yet.  So, he ran away again, even though he liked the pretty warrior very much.  He spent a few more years playing with his friends and making all of Never-Never Land safe.  It was then that he met Wendy.  She helped him protect and take care of his boys in Never-Never Land, and she and Peter became very good friends.  She was mean and sarcastic to him, but he thought she was as beautiful and wonderful as an angel."

            "Don't you mean a fairy?  Like Tinkerbell?"

            "Well, it was more like an angel.  One day, Wendy found out that there was a bad army coming to Never-Never Land.  She and Peter and their boys went to fight it, along with the pretty Warrior and her friends.  The war was long and scary.  The Warrior died and so did the Warrior's brave Knight, and Wendy cried very much when that happened, because she cared about both of them very much.  The others were hurt a little, but they were okay.  It wasn't until the battle ended that they realized Peter was missing.  One of the boys was afraid that the evil man had returned and had stolen Peter Pan away, but Wendy hoped and prayed that he would come back safe and sound, and maybe ready to finally grow old."

            "Did he?  Did he come home again?  Did he want her to be his mother again, and take care of him, or was she too old and sad to go and play with him?"

            "I don't know, honey.  I don't know how the story really ends.  But Wendy is still waiting for her Peter.  She loves him very much and she wants him to grow old with her and love her as much as she loves him."

            "Oh, I hope so, Aunt Cordy!  When will we know how the story ends?"

            "I wish I knew, darling.  We have to want it really badly and pray really strongly and hope and wait.  Close your eyes, dear, and wish that Peter Pan will come back to his Wendy."

            Alonna squeezed her eyes tightly shut.  "Should I clap, like they do in the movie?"

            "Yes, dear.  Clap if you believe in Angels."

            Cordelia tucked the girl into her bed and sighed.  She closed the door part way, and left the hall light on.  She returned to the living room, sat down, and picked up a book to read while she waited for Fred and Gunn to come home.  It was only then that she realized the front door was open.

            Cordelia gasped at the dark figure standing in the frame.  The man smiled at her and walked into the house.  

            "Hey, 'Wendy.'  Do you believe?"

            "A-Angel?"


End file.
